Zanu PF factional war getting too hot even big fish Chiwenga forced to take sides!

Ever since President Mugabe fired former VP Joice Mujuru from the party and government and a number of her supporters this time last year, he might as well have turned on the self-destruct gene in the party because the infighting in the party started and is getting worse. Initially it was Mujuru supporters who were purged, no fewer than 150 senior party officials from provincial leaders to VP have been “baby dumped” as Grace Mugabe would call it, but now the purge been extended to include leaders from Mnangagwa faction and the newly created G40 faction. Now the faction wars are roping in some really big fish!

 

“It has emerged that Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Constantine Chiwenga is now firmly backing VP Emmerson Mnangagwa to succeed President Robert Mugabe,” reported the Zimbabwe Independent.

“Senior Zanu-PF leaders said initially Chiwenga was undecided between the two camps, one led by Mnangagwa and the other by First Lady Grace Mugabe”

 

The war vets, who have been done most of Zanu PF’s dirty work of intimidating and harassing people in the last 15 years led by the notorious Jabulani Sibanda, has been leaderless since the purge of Sibanda last year. They have since regrouped and they are taking on the G40 faction leaders like Empowerment Minister, Patrick Zhuwao, who is also Mugabe’s nephew, head on.

 

“Even, though, Kasukuwere was the first to call war veterans a bunch of drunkards, First Lady Grace Mugabe has upped the ante by saying this group had no claim to special privileges,” reported the Daily News.

 

We must not allow ourselves to be distracted and watch Zanu PF members’ tire each other apart and forget that whichever faction emerges victorious will NOT advance our agenda of democratic change. The war vets and people like Commander Chiwenga are involved in the Zanu PF factional wars because they passionately believe THEY have a right to a meaningful say on who becomes the next president. They have never grasped the idea that the ordinary Zimbabweans too have a right to a meaningful say and it would be naïve to think they will do so in the future.

 

Zanu PF’s factional wars are drawing attention and resources away from the economic meltdown which is getting worse by the day. The longer these wars drag on the deeper in the economic hell the nation will sink. The Zanu PF factional wars could end up dragging the rest of us into tribal or regional war with far reaching social, political and economic consequences.

 

The best course of action for us is to demand the full implementation of the GPA reforms.

 

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown has causing serious economic hardships on not just the millions of ordinary people but on Zanu PF ruling elite too. The economic wealth, the loot, Zanu PF have been sharing has shrink considerably as the economic meltdown got worse and worse; the fierce factional wars in the party are between party fighting over the little loot left. It is fierce because the losers face the real prospect of grinding poverty.

 

Whilst Zanu PF members are distracted by their own internal wars we should push our own agenda of a democratic Zimbabwe and just sit and watch who wins the internal war hoping against hope that they winners will be less oppressive than the Zanu PF of the last 35 years!